Jobs, Growth, Centralia Station Among Topics of Port of Centralia Commission Debate

The series of political forums held by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce in advance of the November general election continued Thursday with a debate between incumbent Port of Centralia Commissioner Julie Shaffley and challenger Bonnie Canaday.

The race for Shaffley’s seat did not appear on the primary ballot earlier this week due to the two women being the only candidates to file with the Lewis County Auditor. Only races with three or more candidates were subject to a primary.

Canaday, who served as mayor of Centralia until she resigned in 2017, said her candidacy should not be construed as criticism of Shaffley’s four-year tenure on the port commission, but rather as evidence of her desire to continue her track record of public service.

“I really enjoy serving,” Canaday said. “I want Centralia to be the best place. I want the Port of Centralia to be the best port, and working together, we can do that. I think my ability to bring people together is one of the things … I would love to serve. That is what I like to do.”

Shaffley also highlighted her desire to give back to the community, citing her nearly 30 year tenure as the owner of Good Health Nutrition Center on Harrison Avenue. She also drew heavily on her experience as a business owner when answering questions from a panel of local stakeholders: Business owner Todd Chaput, Chehalis City Council member Chad Taylor and state Rep. Richard DeBolt.

Canaday later added that she has worked in real estate and has past experience owning and operating local laundromats.

“As a business owner, I know the decisions I make have a huge impact on the store. They impact my employees, they impact me, and they impact my customers. And also, they impact the community. My livelihood, my employees’ livelihoods and my customers’ heath all depend on my decisions, and I don’t take that responsibility lightly,” Shaffley said.

Each candidate had up to three opportunities to give a rebuttal to an answer by their opponent, but the only one came from Shaffley in response to Canaday’s opening statement. 

Canaday made reference to the impact that the current tax levy for the Port of Centralia has on local paychecks compared to levies paid to the city and school district, which led Shaffley to provide justification. Shaffley had claimed creation of more than 700 family-wage jobs by the Port of Centralia during her tenure as part of her opening statement — the $100 million United Natural Foods distribution warehouse is estimated to have created about 350 jobs alone.

“The Port has produced, and the companies in the Port, they have produced over $210 million that goes into public coffers,” Shaffley said. “Those go to the library, the school district, county roads, the fire district. I think that’s a great investment and revenue coming out of the Port.”

Asked what she felt led to the collapse of efforts late last year to lock Fred Meyer in as the anchor tenant for proposed development of Centralia Station, one that would have led to more than $110 million in local sales and more than 500 jobs, Shaffley said that the Port Commission was “deeply disappointed” when the deal fell through. She cited issues with the permitting process and how expenses tend to increase the longer a project takes as reasons why it would be important to expedite similar proposals in the future.

Canaday answered the same question by saying that while she wasn’t privy to details regarding Fred Meyer’s termination of the project, things tend to happen for a reason.

“Maybe Fred Meyer wasn’t the one that should have been here,” Canaday said. I believe that there is somebody out there that will be as good or better than what we thought was going to be. I believe the Port is willing to work with that and I believe there is somebody, don’t have a clue who it is yet, but I know there are people out there willing to come to Centralia and develop the Station, because it is one of our entryways into Centralia.”